Improving Travel Within Our Nature: The Transportation Scholars Program
Because the population from the U . s . States is constantly on the increase, so transportation issues within our nature. Previously 30 years, park visitation rights has leaped greater than 83 percent the majority of these extra visitors have traveled to and thru the parks in independently owned vehicles. Roads and parking facilities which were once sufficient are actually overwhelmed, especially during peak travel seasons.
The resulting congestion both degrades customer encounters and imperils natural and cultural sources the nation’s Park Service (NPS) is dedicated to protecting. It makes sense further stress on a company already extended by small budgets and also over-labored staff.
In 2001, so that they can assist the NPS find innovative methods to this issue, the nation’s Park Foundation (NPF), the Ford Motor Company Fund, and Eno Transportation Foundation partnered using the NPS to determine the nation’s Park Transportation Scholars Program. Today this program continues underneath the guidance from the Park Foundation, the nation’s Park Service, the government Highway Administration, the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks and Technical Assistance Center, and also the Eno Transportation Foundation.
The Transportation Scholars Program provides parks with transportation experts who help in developing transportation systems to assist parks reduce traffic, congestion, and pollution while improving park customer encounters. Students Program pairs transportation professionals and graduated pupils with NPS staff seeking expert help with projects involving transportation planning and analysis, public outreach, intergovernmental coordination, ecological impact assessment, along with other transportation-related tasks. Assignments generally come from early summer time and last either six or twelve several weeks.
The Transportation Scholars Program offers the Park Service with much-needed transportation expertise at a small fraction of the price of hiring consultants or getting on full-time staff. The Parks derive significant advantages from getting Transportation Scholars found on-site versus using off-site assistance, and students benefit parks by becoming single points of contact on transportation matters for consultants, contractors, and native communities. Scholars also bring a brand new perspective towards the Park Service, while removing valuable professional and personal encounters.
Jacqueline Lowey, Deputy Chief of Staff in the U.S. Dot (USDOT) from 1996 to 1997, and Deputy Director from the NPS from 1997-2001, created the concept for that Transportation Scholars Program. “I believe that transportation is completely answer to protecting park sources,” stated Lowey. “Transportation may be the nexus of methods you preserve parks while enabling people to feel the parks’ incredible natural and historic treasures now and later on.”
